Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der says the in­tro­duc­tion of an in­crease in fines for traf­fic of­fences is not in­tend­ed to pun­ish dri­vers for sim­ply “ex­ist­ing”, in­sist­ing it is part of the Gov­ern­ment’s ef­forts to clamp down on er­rant dri­vers on a sus­tained ba­sis.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Alexan­der said, like any pol­i­cy with em­pha­sis on pub­lic safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty, the feel­ings and views of those di­rect­ly af­fect­ed were con­sid­ered, in­clud­ing the rel­a­tives of peo­ple who died in car ac­ci­dents and sur­vivors of col­li­sions them­selves.

He, there­fore, urged the pub­lic to con­sid­er the views of these peo­ple be­fore crit­i­cis­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion, as he ar­gued it had the po­ten­tial to save lives.